I can't believe it will five years since Kurt died. My husband, (who died four years ago) and I met him and Atsuko on Hayman Island, a beautiful retreat on the Great Barrier Reef in the late 1980s. Every night at dinner he was immaculated attired in white. We really only briefly communicated but during those conversations he was interested to hear that we were from South Africa because a wonderful friend of his, Pony de Wet came from the same part of the world as we did. Once we returned to South Africa with the address details provided by Kurt, I contacted Pony and told him of our chance meeting and he and I exchanged Christmas cards and notes for years. Meanwhile, though I was never to meet Kurt again, we became regular correspondents, and our 'letter' friendship went on over the years until his death.
I use to enjoy 'painting' a word picture of Africa for Kurt. He always told me how much he enjoyed my letters.
We wrote to each other for well over twenty years - our Christmas card was generally a family pic which included our dogs (or 'kids' as they are called) - other than that he never set eyes on me again since that chance encounter long ago on Hayman Island.
With best wishes,
Libby Cochrane
Southbroom
KwaZulu-Natal
South Africa.